Today’s reading was about the man from whom the Jesse Tree gets its name: Jesse, father of King David, the stump from whom the shoot that is the Messiah comes (Isaiah 11:1-5). The focus of the reading was the prophecy in Isaiah, after Jesse, and his famous kingly descendants had lived, but long before the time of Christ, which stated that the Messiah would come from Jesse’s line:

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” Isaiah 11:1

We had a great discussion about how a shoot, something new and growing, can come forth from a stump, which is dead, and how this represents Christ overcoming death and destruction, and giving believers eternal life.